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AUSTIN, Texas - (June 19, 2014) - Austin resident
Bettye Porter needed a life-saving procedure to treat her heart
valve disease that was causing severe shortness of breath. Her
husband of 63 years now suffers from Alzheimer's Disease and
she needs to be healthy and by his side.

Experts at the new clinic treat conditions such as
leaky heart valves and heart murmurs. Each patient can work
closely with a multi-disciplinary medical team that includes
heart surgeons and cardiologists to get a comprehensive
assessment of potential treatments. The clinic is located in
the Seton Heart
Insititute in Medical Park Tower, 1301 W. 38th Street,
Suite 400.

"Essentially, it's a one-stop shop for patients with
valvular heart disease, eliminating the need for multiple
visits to multiple specialists,"
Dr. Mark Pirwitz, president and chief executive officer,
said. "Seton Heart Institute's valve clinic offers the latest,
minimally-invasive treatments for valve conditions, which means
Central Texans no longer have to travel to other cities to get
state-of-the-art quality of care."

Bettye's Innovative Valve
Procedure

Bettye Porter underwent a procedure called Transcatheter
Aortic Valve Replacement, or TAVR, which offers many
benefits for heart patients with critical aortic stenosis, or
severe narrowing of a heart valve. Porter, like many other
heart valve patients, needed an invasive aortic valve
replacement, but was not a candidate for traditional "open
heart" surgery.

A TAVR procedure places a new aortic valve into the heart
via a catheter inserted through an incision in the groin area.
Surgeons guide it up to the heart through the circulatory
system.

"The average hospital stay is two to three days," said
Dr. Tuan Nguyen, Seton Heart Institute cardiologist. "This
new treatment method can offer a much shorter recovery time -
one to two weeks, versus six to eight weeks with the
traditional sternotomy, or open heart surgery."

Porter is one of two Central Texas patients who successfully
underwent TAVR procedures at Seton Medical Center Austin in the
past month.

The Seton valve clinic is the first site in Central Texas to
participate in a groundbreaking study of the potential benefits
of MitraClip®, a catheter-based, less invasive treatment option
that can help patients with leaky heart valves.

An estimated 4 million Americans suffer from a condition
called mitral valve regurgitation, which stems from a leaky
valve that allows blood to flow backward in the heart. It is a
progressive disease that damages the cardiac muscle and can
cause stroke and heart failure.

For some patients, the surgical risk is very high.

"As cardiologists, we see patients who are simply too
fragile for traditional mitral regurgitation surgery," Pirwitz
said. "The Valve Clinic at Seton Heart Institute is excited to
offer MitraClip, which can potentially offer a less risky
treatment for this life-threatening condition."

The device is delivered into the heart through the femoral
vein, a blood vessel in the leg. Once implanted, it allows the
heart to pump blood more efficiently, thereby relieving
symptoms and improving a patient's quality of life. Patients
undergoing MitraClip therapy typically experience short
recovery times and are back on their feet faster.

Seton is proud to have four hospitals – the only hospitals in Central Texas - that have earned the Magnet designation, the highest award for nursing excellence given by the American Nurses Association.